ELP reformed, then split. Then reformed, then split. What is going on? Geoff Nicholls asked Carl Palmer who told him quite a bit about drums as well. Good.

I asked Carl Palmer how he kept fit. "When I'm in London (he's got a place off Hyde Park) I run round the Serpentine and the outer perimeter of the park (about seven miles) five or six times a week, sometimes twice on Sundays. And I swim if I've got the time. In Spain (he's got a place in the Canaries — I told you it was worth practising those paradiddles) I'm out windsurfing for hours." And he likes cycling. He also takes care with what he eats. Unlike his hero and mentor Buddy Rich who apparently lived off hot dogs and pasta. Mind you, like Buddy, Carl will probably still be playing drums with the same enthusiasm at the age of 69 — though he intends to be a lot healthier.

But I'm not trying to make out Carl's a fanatic; no, he's an enthusiast — he's got a lot of energy and he channels it into staying in shape and drumming. Fanatics make you feel uncomfortable, Carl never does; he's easy to talk to and happy to share confidences.

Like the projected reformation of the original ELP earlier this year. Carl's verdict: "disastrous". Even though he told me a few months back it could be a financial jackpot. The fact is they couldn't do it all over again. However he is determined to work with Keith Emerson once more, and they're currently rehearsing with two Americans: Robert Berry on bass and keyboards, and singer Sue Schifrin who's a successful songwriter having written stuff for Tina Turner, Dionne Warwick, Heart and others.

We await the outcome of rehearsals, but meantime Carl's as sharp as he ever was, and is busily checking out the new gear and techniques like the rest of us. He's particularly keen on his new Dynacord electronic kit, and I was keen to see it in action. I've heard the Dynacord before and been very impressed — great sounds, flexible system — what would Carl be doing with it? As it turned out, trying to get it to work!

No, fair's fair, it worked, and sounded good, but it was cross-triggering all over the place. Oh the fun we're having with electronics! Still, it's worth it in the end.

For the time being, though, the acoustics still take centre stage in the form of a double bass drum Remo kit. Carl, along with Phil Collins, is one of the few nowadays associated with a big tom sound who've stuck with single headed drums. Interesting that. The drums are fitted with the May internal fixed miking system with a selection of AKG and Sennheiser mikes. The bass drum pedals are Premier. The acoustic drums also have C-Ducer dynamic pickups to trigger electronic sounds.

The Dynacord's to the left of the acoustic kit, and is played as a complete and separate entity, including a sampled hi-hat on one of the pads. Behind is one of the original sculpted Simmons SDS5s, which I must say sounded great, though Carl's going to put it through a digital effects unit to update the sound. Behind and suspended above are three Simmons bass drum pads which go into two channels of the Dynacord brain. The first triggers a terrific gong sample, the second a cymbal, and the third a sort of chugging 'engine' sound. Played behind and above the head, these add to the well-known visual side of Carl's solo, as does another new toy: the Dynacord Rhythm Stick. With a little practice this is more than a novelty.

So what does Carl think of electronic drums generally? As with most others he feels they're not yet a replacement for real drums, but he's determinedly working on them because he believes things will inevitably continue to go that way. In fact he'd like to try having his set-up reversed so that he could lead with a double electronic set rather than the double acoustic set. One major attraction would be getting closer to the same sound every night. The acoustics will never be "rubbed out" though, and of course with triggering you can get the electronic sound plus the sensitivity of the acoustics.

He wants to develop the "musical rock drummer" approach combining everything: electronic and acoustic, tuned and non-tuned. He's already started working with a skeleton drum beat provided by a Sequential Drumtraks machine, which he can fill out and add to in all sorts of ways. He'd like to play some chords off the electronic pads — but not just weedy expander chords, they'd have to be massive keyboard sampled sounds and effects. In rehearsal they're just starting to work with sequencers. One suggestion is to expand the backing vocals with some sequenced vocal samples. Obviously this would require the band locking in with the machine time. Carl's keen to get on with it: sequencers are great with the right music and the right arrangement. And not always when you'd necessarily expect them: he was knocked out by ZZ Top's live use of sequencers.

What about in the studio, any problems with clicktracks or sequencers? He admits he found clicktracks hell until an engineer put a bit of the snare drum he was playing in the cans with some reverb so that the sound blended with the drum machine (which was playing sixteenths hi-hat, four on the floor, and off-beat snare). At that point it "felt like I was playing the machine" and there's been no problem.

On the last Asia album they couldn't get the miked-up kit as bright as the Synclavier, so they took samples of the snare and bass drums, wrote out all the beats, and Carl played them manually off the keyboard. He then went out and played the hi-hat and ride cymbal separately, then the crashes. Holes had been left for the fills, and they were put on last. The whole lot was then balanced up and "you couldn't really tell how it had been done. A lot of people thought it was machine."

Carl would like also in the future to try recording with a skeleton machine part — like the Drumtraks piece — and then have everybody else out of the studio so he can go for the big ambient drum sound — "dustbin-lids-off-skyscraper drum fills". Mind you, playing complex arranged pieces sometimes, it's not really practical to do this sort of thing — "you can't start programming it, you've got to knuckle down and learn it, and all go in and play it together".

PS Carl has his drum tutor book out now, published by Modern Drummer Publications, which also contains transcriptions of ten of his best recorded tracks.